The Outsiders Alternate Ending
by andersex
Summary: What could have happened after the big rumble...


**Essay: ****The Outsiders – Alternate Ending.**

My head was spinning, I felt as if I was going to pass out, but I wasn't sure about Johnny's condition so I quickened my pace, falling into step next to Dally as we raced down the hospital corridors. When we reached Johnny's hospital room I almost ran into Dally, seeing as he stopped so abruptly. The doctor looked over at us and moved out of the way, the second he had moved away from the door, Dally had burst through it, and of course, I followed after him.

"Johnnycake" Dally said with a sigh, as he sat down in the chair next to Johnny's bed. I looked over at Johnny quickly before I took a seat on the opposite side of Johnny's bed in the other chair. Johnny was deathly pale, his eyes looked different than they usually did, he didn't look so scared, and he almost looked at peace.

"Ponyboy" he said weakly "Dally" he smiled a small smile and started coughing, when he didn't stop coughing after a few minutes Dally looked at me strangely, he almost looked scared, and if Dallas Winston is scared, you had better be scared too. Finally Johnny stopped coughing momentarily, and he leaned back on the bed resting his head on the pillow. I looked back over at him and my eyes grew wide, in Johnny's left hand was a splotch of blood, slowly dripping over his fingers and onto the bed sheet. I looked over at Dally, who had also noticed and we exchanged a look. I got up, about to go get the doctor, to ask him if that was normal, when a loud beeping noise interrupted my thoughts.

The next thing I knew Dally and I were being shoved out of the room and into the hallway. Even though it was hard to see with the fluorescent lighting in the room, I could see the look of terror on his face, and I hadn't seen that look on Dallas' face, not since that big blow up with Tim Shepard's ex girlfriend Maya. Long story short, Maya didn't want Dally hanging out with Tim and of course, Dally told her to buzz off. She wasn't having it, so she attacked him with a broken beer bottle and the look in his eyes when she broke that bottle and started advancing towards him, the look in his eyes would have been hilarious, had it been anyone other than Dally.

While we stood out in the hallway Dally paced, unable to stay still. I wondered what was going through his mind, because I knew d--n well what was going through mine. Would Johnny be okay? What had just happened? What was that beeping? Is he ever going to be able to walk again? Will he be the same Johnny he was before? Will he have to go back home and live with his abusive parents if he can never walk again? The possibilities were endless, and they were slowly driving me insane. But if I was feeling the pressure, it had to be affecting Dally worse, considering Johnny was technically the closest thing to family that Dally had, gang included.

We sat there for hours, dally pacing while I sat there, staring blankly at the wall in front of me. I didn't blink much, just often enough so that people would know I was alive and not catatonic or something. People were passing by, but we paid no attention. Finally, the same doctor from before, a Dr Kennedy, came out of the room, and looked at us. Before he could say a word, Dally pulled out Two-Bit's switchblade and brandished it in front of the doctor, who looked alarmed but wasn't moving an inch. He probably didn't want to get mutilated by an angry greaser, I know I wouldn't.

"If you lower your weapon I'll tell you what happened to your friend, you know, the one in the hospital room? The one you aren't getting to spend time with because you're threatening me" He said slowly and calmly, his professional side obviously outweighing the scared part of him.

Dally lowered the knife and re-pocketed it, stepping back to allow the doctor some breathing space.

"Your friend Johnny has a lot of internal injuries, to be honest boys, he's lucky to be alive right now. Back there, when the heart monitor went off, it's because blood was leaking into his lungs, and he stopped breathing. Which then caused him to go into cardiac arrest, which is a heart attack" he explained, while looking at us.

"Were not dumb, we know what cardiac arrest is" I snapped at him. I was just about to push him out of the way and go into the room when Dally placed a hand on my arm, as if to say 'calm down Ponyboy', so I did.

The doctor explained that Johnny had undergone 3 major surgeries in the past 6 hours we had been waiting. With a few months of recovery, Johnny should be able to get some mobility out of his legs again, but it was uncertain.

Finally we were allowed back into the hospital room, where Johnny lay asleep in his bed, he looked really young lying there in the huge bed and that's when I realized it, he was young. We had spent the majority of our lives trying to be 'tuff' when really, we had never stopped and actually been kids, you know? Being in the gang is great and all, but sometimes…well sometimes I just get to thinking what it would be like if mom and dad were still here…

Darry would be in college, Soda would probably still be in school and we could be the happy family that we always had been, and none of this would have ever happened. Darry wouldn't have hit me, causing me to run away to Johnny and end up in the lot, where Johnny was forced to kill Bob. then we wouldn't have had to run away and hide in that church, and we wouldn't have been there to witness the fire and attempt to save those kids, and Johnny wouldn't be lying in that hospital bed.

Behind me I heard the door open and Steve, Two-Bit, Darry, and Soda all came in the room, with Dally trailing behind them. I hadn't noticed it at the time, but apparently Dally had left the room to call the gang, who were all at my house, bandaging up their wounds from the rumble.

That's when I remembered the rumble, and then everything went black.

----

I woke up and looked around; I was back in my bed but something felt…wrong. I looked up, and to my amazement, my mom entered the room with a bowl of soup in her hands. I gaped at her in shock, and she gave me the strangest look.

"What's wrong baby?" she asked me, while looking at me as if I had two heads or something.

"I…you…you're dead!" I shouted, as I scrambled away to the far end of my bed, as far away from her as I could get.

"You and Dad are dead! You died in a car crash! And Soda dropped out of school and Darry didn't go to college and Johnny almost died and there was this big rumbled and…and…" I trailed off, because my mother was looking at me as if I had lost my mind.

"No Ponyboy, there _was_ a car crash, but your father and I are fine. You hit your head on something, and you've been in a coma ever since. We were allowed to bring you home for at home care, but we didn't think you'd ever wake up. This is…" she trailed off, tears springing to her eyes, I wanted to believe her, but somehow I felt it was too good to be true.

"What about Soda and Darry? Are they okay?" I blurted out.

"Soda is at school and Darry is playing football with Michael, one of his new college friends" she said, still looking at me strangely.

Finally it dawned on me, it had been a dream. A really strange and messed up dream, one that I probably wouldn't forget for a long, long time.

But I think it taught me one of those life long lessons, ones you can't really learn without experiencing it first hand. In my dream, or whatever it was, I had made some mistakes and there were things I had wanted to say that I never got the chance to say, but now I had that opportunity.

I had been given a second chance, and I wasn't going to waste any second of it. 

**By: Charlotte Mosher, 9-2 1460 words. **


End file.
